


When the Rain Washes You Clean

by cassiopeiasara



Category: Grace and Frankie (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Frankie and her love of people falling in puddles, Frankie centric, Kissing in the Rain, Pre Series moments, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-14 22:25:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13017417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassiopeiasara/pseuds/cassiopeiasara
Summary: Three times in Frankie's life when rainstorms were catalysts.





	When the Rain Washes You Clean

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spattergroit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spattergroit/gifts).



> A/N: In response to a request for Grace and Frankie kissing in the rain. No beta which might be a mistake for a first foray into a new pairing but I hope you can forgive me. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing and I seek no profit. Title from Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams"

When Bud was six, he took tap lessons. Frankie didn’t remember much since he only lasted a year but she held onto the vision of her little boy who would grow up to be so serious; laughing with complete abandon, his eyes big and bright when he mastered a combination. That December when her mother died, she hid herself in her room, curled up in a ball, not being able to fathom a world without her. **  
**

One day it rained so hard it woke Frankie from one of her naps and she heard music coming from the living room. When she entered, she saw Bud just outside the door with a yellow umbrella concentrating harder than she’d ever seen him and humming _Singing In the Rain_. He slipped in a puddle and try as she might to feel sympathy for him, it just made her laugh. Bud pouted as he looked up but it didn’t last long before he just shook his head and smiled. Later he said, “I missed your laugh, Mom.” It gave her a break, an ease, a healing.

Brianna reached for Frankie the first time during a thunderstorm at the beach house. Grace was in the kitchen, promising cocoa while on the phone with work. Frankie was always intrigued by Grace’s little mini-me as she’d never seen a child so hell bent on proving her strength. It seemed though that severe thunderstorms were Brianna’s Achilles heel and she leapt into Frankie’s lap during a loud clap of thunder.

Frankie smiled at her. “Aren’t scared are you, kiddo?”

“No,” said Brianna as she clutched onto Frankie for dear life.

Frankie patted her head, surprised when Brianna didn’t move from the display of affection. “You know, there’s not much to be scared of, Tialoc is just blowing off some steam.”

Brianna knitted her eyebrows as she looked up at Frankie and loosened her grip. “Who is that?”

“An Aztec rain deity, silly. Don’t they teach you anything in those fancy private schools?”

Brianna shrugged. “Not really but I did learn how to tie Brian Fullman’s shoelaces to his chair so he won’t chase after me anymore.” She dropped her small hands from Frankie’s arms but stayed in her lap.

Frankie nodded. “Well I can see where that’s helpful.”

When the rain cleared a while later and Brianna moved from Frankie’s lap to her side, Grace let out a curse as she slipped on a small puddle near the door. Frankie and Brianna laughed at the same time until Grace pinned them with a glare.

“Oh no,” whispered Brianna and Frankie just knew a Grace rant was on its way but to both of their surprise, it didn’t come. She just huffed and went back into the kitchen to see what was keeping Robert.

(Years later, Frankie would learn that Grace, so unused to being a source of joy for her daughter, would bend every once in a while to see Brianna smile even if it came at her expense.)

From then on, Brianna allowed Frankie’s hugs and often initiated a closeness that followed them the rest of their lives. It gave Frankie the closest thing she had to a daughter.

The first storm upon Frankie’s return from her stay with Jacob gave her something she’d felt but never hoped for. Grace was wrapped up in her beige cardigan pacing Frankie’s studio and mumbling something about time away and realizations and it was hard for Frankie to get a handle on it.

“Give it to me straight, honey. Unless you’d like to do it some other way.” Frankie laughed at her own joke but it died when she looked up into Grace’s terrified eyes. Frankie twirled her finger in the air like she was rolling back a tape. “Rewind, say we try it again?”

Grace took a deep breath and tightened her cardigan. “I’m saying I have feelings for you, Frankie. Romantic feelings.”

A clap of thunder sounded, startling Grace and causing Frankie to remember all the other big moments rain paid witness to in her life.

“We should probably run to the house.” Grace paused in the doorway. “Frankie, are you coming?”

Obviously the only thing to do in that moment with Grace in her doorway after revealing how she feels,  would be to pay homage to the rain gods/goddesses by pulling their gift of Grace close with her lips soft and ready against Frankie’s own. Grace let out a surprised “oof,” before she wrapped an arm around Frankie and brought up a hand to her hair. It was messy, wet (the rain mostly) and oddly rushed but it was the best first kiss Frankie had in forty years.

They were soaked by the time they made it in the house, too distracted by this new layer to their relationship but Frankie couldn’t help but connect its appropriate place in the transitions of her life. Also Grace in a wet shirt was definitely something she to see more often. Frankie chuckled at the thought as she took a towel from Grace with a wink and a promise of things to come. 


End file.
